A look at the Defence news 3 – 9 July

News item | 11-07-2018 | 15:35

On 5 July, the Netherlands House of Representatives agreed to an extension of the Dutch mission in Afghanistan by a 102-48 vote. The current number of 100 military personnel will be increased to 160. This mostly concerns special forces, who will be training and mentoring Afghan commandos in Mazar-e-Sharif. Furthermore, the Dutch contribution to the NATO Resolute Support mission will be extended to 2021. This extension and intensification follows a request from NATO and Afghanistan. In addition to the 60 extra military personnel, who will be operating in close cooperation with German units, 6 police advisers will be added to the NATO mission in Kabul.

The Netherlands and the United States sign defence treaty

On 2 July, the US ambassador in the Netherlands, Peter Hoekstra, and his Dutch counterpart in the United States, Henne Schuwer, signed a cooperation treaty in Washington to strengthen the nations’ cooperation on military equipment and operations. The treaty involves exchanging military personnel, such as pilots, liaison officers and technicians, as well as exchanging information about new technological systems. This is especially important in large materiel projects, such as the replacement of helicopters (Chinook and Apache), the purchase of unmanned aircraft (Reaper), or the exchange of information during replacements of submarines and frigates. Both countries also agreed to cooperate further in missile defence.